Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Psychology & Mental Health

"Creativity is the unique and defining trait of our species, and its ultimate goal, self-understanding", begins Edward O. Wilson's sweeping examination of the humanities and its relationship to the sciences. By studying fields as diverse as paleontology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience, Wilson demonstrates that human creativity began not 10,000 years ago, as we have long assumed, but over 100,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age.

As a therapist, Dr. Sherry Walling knew all the “right” things to say to help people through grief. But when she lost her father and her brother within six months of each other, she learned how much our current thinking about grief has to change. In Touching Two Worlds, this trusted expert dares to open the inner workings of her own grief—and in the process, provides a clear map for anyone searching for hope in the aftermath of loss. Whether your loss is recent and sharp or old and familiar, Dr. Walling delivers wise and tender guidance through this new land.

Even before everything was disrupted by COVID-19 (not to mention by Trump), millions of Americans were already questioning capitalism’s “values”. We were already challenging the idea that your job defines you. We already knew something was wrong. Loneliness, frustration, and alienation were already on the rise. Even the most successful of us felt too busy, too preoccupied, and too distracted to enjoy what we intuitively know are life’s greatest rewards: vibrant relationships, family life, connection to others, involvement in our community, and the thrilling experience of love.

Reputation touches almost everything, guiding our behavior and choices in countless ways. But it is also shrouded in mystery. Why is it so powerful when the criteria by which people and things are defined as good or bad often appear to be arbitrary? Why do we care so much about how others see us that we may even do irrational and harmful things to try to influence their opinion? In this engaging book, Gloria Origgi draws on philosophy, social psychology, sociology, economics, and more to offer an illuminating account of an important yet oddly neglected subject.

For the past 17 years, Dr. Stuart Eisendrath has piloted research into the therapeutic effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on people experiencing clinical depression. Since then, by helping people recognize that they don't have to change the content of their thoughts but can find relief simply by changing how they relate to their thoughts, Eisendrath has seen dramatic improvements in people's symptoms and quality of life nearly every day.

Parenting a teenager is not for the faint of heart. It is during these roller-coaster years that frustrated parents find themselves at their wits' end, barely even recognizing their offspring as they move through the teen years. Carl Pickhardt, Harvard-trained psychologist and the voice of reason behind Psychology Today's advice column, "Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence," shares critical insights and practical tools that parents need to know along their child's rocky road toward independence and adulthood.

Mary Firestone survived the unthinkable. In 2018 she lived through the Montecito mudslide that dropped 200 million gallons of rainfall in 15 minutes, washing away her home. Trapped alone in her bathroom while pregnant, not sure if her husband and four-year-old son were still alive, she wasn’t thinking that her trauma was a gift in disguise. Yet, as she began her journey to healing, this is exactly what she discovered.

With the exception of sleep, humans spend more of their lifetimes on work than any other activity. It is central to our economy, our society, and the family. It underpins our finances and our sense of meaning in life. Given the overriding importance of work, we need to recognize a profound transformation in the nature of work that is significantly altering lives: the incoming tidal wave of shadow work. Shadow work includes all the unpaid tasks we do on behalf of businesses and organizations.

More than just a book full of the latest information, this is a dynamic, interactive, and personalized journey of recovery for those impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Finally, they can put their past behind them where it belongs! For those who have grown up in a family with addiction, mental illness, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACES), the heartache and pain doesn't end when they grow up and leave home.

The unprecedented access to other humans that technology provides has ironically freed us from engaging with them. According to social psychologist Adam Waytz, our increasingly human-free lives come with a serious cost that we’ve already begun to pay: the loss of our humanity. Humans have superpowers. More than any other psychological stimulus, our presence can make experiences feel significant, inspire moral behavior, and encourage action. The Power of Human shows us how to rehumanize and harness these unique abilities to improve our lives, beginning with our jobs.

In The Genius Checklist, Dean Keith Simonton examines the key factors in creative genius and finds that they are more than a little contradictory. Simonton, who has studied creativity and genius for more than four decades, draws on both scientific research and stories from the lives of famous creative geniuses that range from Isaac Newton to Vincent van Gogh to Virginia Woolf. Simonton's checklist gives us a new, integrative way to understand geniuses - and perhaps even to nurture your own genius.

How do we provide discipline that is effective but not overly harsh? How do we teach our kids to be resilient and manage their feelings when we have trouble managing our own? Drawing on their extensive knowledge of ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) and PACEs (protective childhood experiences), psychologists Morris and Hays Grudo describe a balanced parenting approach to help parents manage these tricky balancing acts with confidence.

At age twenty-seven, and more than a decade into her modeling career, Mia Kang found herself in Thailand, standing at the edge of a Muay Thai gym thousands of miles from her New York apartment, watching fighters she didn’t know spar and sweat. As she stood there, something primal came over her—the desire to fight. What began as a short vacation to escape the toxic world of modeling became the start of an incredible journey that would forever change Kang’s relationship to food, to her body, and to her own sense of self.

Mining the same problem-solving and motivational skills JD Roth has used so successfully with reality show contestants, The Big Fat Truth gets listeners to address the real reasons they're overweight (and nobody gets away with saying it's because they love food). With his combination of enthusiasm, empathy, no-holds-barred style, and master story-telling abilities, JD helps them unearth and tackle the unresolved issues they've buried under the French fries and chocolate chip cookie.

This Is Your Body on Trauma is the first book to teach listeners how to use nutrition to heal underlying trauma that presents in physical symptoms. It features a unique do-it-yourself approach, allowing people to completely customize their care plan. More than “just” a nutrition book, This Is Your Body on Trauma helps people make connections between what is going on in their mind and body with a unique 360-degree integrative approach to mental health.

In this exciting companion to Ellen Notbohm’s beloved classic Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, the unique perspective of an autistic child’s voice returns to describe for teachers, in the classroom and in the larger community, how to understand thinking and processing patterns common in autism, how to shape an environment conducive to their learning style, and how to communicate with autistic learners of all ages in functional, meaningful ways.

In Every 90 Seconds, Anne P. DePrince argues that to end violence against women, we must fundamentally redefine how we engage with it—starting by abandoning the idea that violence is a problem involving only those who abuse or are abused. Instead, DePrince illuminates how violence against women is inextricably linked to other issues that stoke our greatest passions.

In this book, horror-expert Mathias Clasen delves into the psychological science of horror cinema to bust some of the worst myths and correct the biggest misunderstandings surrounding the genre. In short and highly enjoyable chapters peppered with vivid anecdotes and examples, he addresses the nervous person's most pressing questions: What are the effects of horror films on our mental and physical health? Why do they often cause nightmares? Aren't horror movies immoral and a bad influence on children and adolescents?

The evening of April 12, 1979, was clear and warm. Unaware of the danger lurking on the periphery of the French Quarter, Drs. Ronald Banks and John Hakola made a tragic decision - to walk the few blocks from the historic district to the Hyatt Regency. Inches from the safety of their hotel entrance, they were accosted by two young men - a scuffle ensued, a shot fired, Dr. Banks lay dead on the sidewalk. Fighting Time tells the story of what happened next - hours, days, weeks, and years after those horrible seconds.

The Well-Tuned Brain is a call to action. Swept along by the cascading advances of today's technology, most of us take for granted that progress brings improvement. Despite spectacular material advance, however, the evidence grows that we are failing to create a sustainable future for humanity. We are out of tune with the planet that nurtures us.